Information about planned outages

[Paulinus47]

I have received a text message from Virgin saying there is to be a planned outage on Wednesday next week, but no more specific than that. Is there a way to discover exactly when it is planned? I have an important Zoom appointment that day and need to be able to plan ahead.

[japitts · Accepted solution]

There's a good chance you'll lose all services for perhaps 30mins > an hour sometime mid/late-morning, and possible the same mid/late-afternoon.

There's a possibility you'll lose service for the entire duration of the change window - it's the nature of planned works & change-management that the techs will plan for the worst but hope for the best.

If you're reliant on your connection for whatever purpose, I'd advise you to do the same - plan for the worst, and have an alternate connection available. And hope for the best and possibly find it's an unnecessary precaution.

[goslow]

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@Paulinus47 wrote:

I have received a text message from Virgin saying there is to be a planned outage on Wednesday next week, but no more specific than that. Is there a way to discover exactly when it is planned? I have an important Zoom appointment that day and need to be able to plan ahead.

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Does the text message specify a planned end time for the work when service should be restored? They normally do.

My experience of these planned work messages (probably a handful in 20 years with NTL/VM) is that they are usually reliable and that the service is normally back on before the stated restore time.

That said, the last one I received (recently, via letter) was that there was a planned outage and nothing happened at all. There will be no way of guaranteeing what your experience will be on the day.

Best make some alternative arrangements for your planned Zoom meeting.

[Paulinus47]

Thanks goslow - there was no start time specified in the text message. I see from the business account pages that they are able to give those users a specific time window to help business planning, so the information should be available. It's just a matter of knowing who/how to ask. Maybe I'll assume the worst (that I cannot rely on the service that day) and try to make other arrangements, although it will be very disruptive.

[japitts]

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@Paulinus47 wrote:

I see from the business account pages that they are able to give those users a specific time window to help business planning, so the information should be available.

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While that's a valid point, this community forum is for VM's residential services, and I'd presume you have a residential contract with them.

[newapollo]

Hi paulinus47,

You might be able to get more information by calling the planned outage number  0800 052 2137 on Monday (they don't work weekends)

[Paulinus47]

Thanks newapollo - I'll try that number and see if they can help me. I'm grateful for the information.